Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - School of Business and Economics

In 2024, the Graduate Centre of the School of Business and Economics will again organize an Autumn Retreat for the doctoral students of the school and doctoral students of economics and business and management sciences of the Berlin University Alliance. The event will take place on October 21 - 22 at the Gästehaus Blumenfisch am Großen Wannsee.

Workshop 1 Critical Reasoning and Logic 

Trainer: Dr. Anja Berninger

Workshop Language: English 

Workshop description: 

Scientists have to give arguments in many different contexts: in their publications, in grant applications, in lab meetings and in conference presentations. Nevertheless, the bases for strong and correct arguments are not always fully clear to them. Logic provides extremely helpful tools for scientists to develop their arguments in a coherent, well-structured and convincing way. The course introduces the most important concepts of logic: premises and conclusions of arguments, validity and soundness of arguments, deductive vs. inductive reasoning, common types of inferences and fallacies. The idea of the course is to use these concepts as a toolbox which provides useful techniques for everyday scientific work. The participants learn how to reconstruct arguments from scientific texts, how to give well-structured and logically valid arguments, and how to avoid misunderstandings. There are two main sets of exercises: one for written argumentation and one for oral argumentation.

Contents: 

• basic concepts of logic (validity and soundness of arguments etc.) 
• inductive and deductive arguments
• common types of fallacies
• reconstructing arguments from texts
• tips and exercises for written argumentation
• tips and exercises for oral argumentation  

Workshop 2: Good Scientific Practice (Part 2)

The workshop builds on the first online-workshop part from october 8, but can also be attended independently.

Trainer: Prof. Dr. Tobias Schmohl

Workshop Language: English

Workshop description:

This intensive course, spanning 1.5 days, provides an introduction to the principles and interdisciplinary aspects of good scientific practice. Instances of typical intentional and unintentional scientific misconduct are covered. The participants will gain practical knowledge on the honest processing and documentation of research results, in addition to discussing central guidelines and recommendations for scientific work conducted in accordance with the "lege artis" principle. The course aims to discuss case studies derived from scientific practice. It will include a critical analysis and evaluation of the pertinent legal, scientific-ethical, and procedural elements. The analysis will be based on relevant international reference texts and codes of conduct, such as the institutional guideline for safeguarding good scientific practice at HU Berlin, the Global Research Council, and the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. The objective is to formulate interdisciplinary protocols that provide significant support for the promotion of good scientific conduct and to effectively address instances of plagiarism and questionable research practices. Additional areas of emphasis include collaboration within team settings and the protection and retention of original data.

contents:

• Principles and frameworks of good scientific practice
• Scientific quality standards and research guidelines
• Fundamentals and general principles of scientific work
• Relevance of the principles for the use of artificial intelligence; potential problems, and areas of conflict
• Avoidance of misconduct in science, such as false statements, infringement of intellectual property, dishonest handling of data
• Standards of scientific ethics and practical scientific procedures
• Academic consequences of scientific misconduct at university and non-university level (e.g. sanction options of faculties, scientific institutions, scientific journals and publishers (for publications), funding agencies and scientific organisations, professional organisations, ministries as well as funding agencies, scientific organisations and ministries) Analysis of case studies
• Evaluation of codes of conduct and recommendations of national and international reference texts of good scientific practice

learning outcomes:

The aim of this workshop is for participants to be able to:

• Identify and formulate generally applicable principles of scientific goodness criteria at different stages of the production of research papers, which can be specified for individual disciplines as needed,
• to recognise scientific misconduct based on scientific, ethical values and to actively avoid it in their work,
• to realise and effectively design references to action and practice in their respective research fields based on the DFG guidelines for good scientific practice
• critically reflect on conflicting goals in the planning and implementation of their research projects and independently develop strategies for honest scientific work,
• to determine criteria for performance assessment concerning academic work supervised by the
  participants and to develop criteria for the quality of reviews.

Methods:

The proposed in-house workshop will incorporate a variety of instructional methods, including

• small group collaboration, analysis of scientific case studies,
• constructive feedback from peers,
• large group discussions,
• and a dilemma game where participants can adopt various perspectives.

Interactive presentation materials will be used alongside a web-based live voting system.

There are no participation fees. The dinner on site on October 4th must be paid by the participants themselves. Lunch will be provided.

A limited number of overnight accommodations including breakfast will be provided as well. Unlike in recent years, this is done in double rooms. This will also be covered by the Graduate Centre.

The only prerequisite for participation is admission to the doctoral studies at our school or the Faculties of Economics and Business Administration at the FU Berlin or TU Berlin.

Please register early at promotion.wiwi@hu-berlin.de, indicating whether you would like an overnight stay and which workshop you would like to attend.

After repeated absences without excuse or cancellations at very short notice at previous events of the Graduate Centre, persons who register for events and are absent without excuse or at very short notice (3 working days before the event) without a medical certificate will be excluded from the Graduate Centre's event offerings for one year.

Please deregister in time if you are not able to attend the event!